Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Sunday said jobs have recovered, and that prices have stabilized when the economy has opened in the past months.
“The jobs and prices reports reflect what we have already observed for the past several months: When the economy is able to operate at a higher capacity, jobs are created and prices stabilize. If we want jobs to return and the price situation to improve, we have to do what we can to keep the economy open,” he said.
“Although in my view, actual job creation remains fluid, the most significant number in the November 2021 survey is that more people have decided to take part in the labor force than at any other time in 2021. That is a positive sign of the growing confidence and the growing need of our workers to rejoin work,” he added.
The national joblessness rate is also down to 6.5 percent from 7.4 percent last month, he noted.
The October to November period saw an increase in jobs by 1.651 million.
“I would attribute some seasonality to this, and predict that, if the Omicron variant causes an overreaction and as the Christmas season effects fade, we may see unemployment return to 7.0 percent by January 2021,” he said.
“Jobs are being created, but they are not yet very durable jobs. We will only see more concrete jobs recovery once the COVID overhang is resolved and people are no longer speculating whether more stringent restrictions will be implemented in the future,” he cited.
According to Salceda, House committee on ways and means chair, since more people are seeking work, more people would also be unable to find enough work.
Such is the underlying reason for higher underemployment, he stressed.
On prices, the fourth quarter of 2021 is also the most open the economy ever was during the year, while inflation is also the slowest in December than at any other time in 2021, he said.
Among his recommendations for job recovery and price stabilization are for the government not to overreact to Omicron, and that the main determinant of response must not be raw number of cases, but the capacity of our healthcare system to treat patients; the nautical routes between the Visayas and Mindanao must be restored to full capacity as soon as possible; for their restoration to help stabilize the prices of basic commodities and the flow of basic goods remains unhampered.